The Bus

$7USD or more

LP SPECIAL EDITION (limited to 100)

Record/Vinyl

On WHITE VINYL, with hand-silkscreened jackets (silver ink on white), plus prints of "THE BUS" ephemera: scores, poems, photos, film stills.*Includes download of "THE BUS", plus a download of "Chicago to Elyria' - a collection of bonus materials including the original demos of "Tell Him Yr Name, Ann" & "We're the Boss", an unreleased song called "Please Keep Up", and the pieces "He's Heels" and "Chicago to Elyria" - the latter of which was recorded with members of Zs, Excepter, Extra Life plus Okkyung Lee and more.*Pre-ordering "THE BUS" will give you a download code for immediate digital listening. Link to "Chicago to Elyria" will be included in the LP package.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Bus
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

LP (limited to 200)

Record/Vinyl

On WHITE VINYL, with silk-screened jackets (black ink on white).
*
Pre-ordering "THE BUS" will give you a download code for immediate digital listening. LP will ship as soon as is available, on or before September 18th, 2012.
Includes unlimited streaming of The Bus
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

about

While finishing the mix of the Skeletons' album "MONEY", Jason made the joke / non-joke that we should just scrap the entire album, transcribe and orchestrate all the parts we had just recorded, and re-record them with a 20-piece big band, live, in one room. I laughed at the time, and filled with rage. So much energy had been spent on record, the notion of throwing it away made me sick to my stomach.

About a year or so later, we found ourselves in a tiny room trying to track and overdub parts on the songs for "PEOPLE" - when an email came through asking if we might have an idea to do "something special", over the course of a week, with space and time to work through that big idea at the NYC performance space Roulette. Maybe Jason was right?

It was with great relief that we were able to pause for a moment and consider a new set of ideas. We came back to the "big band" - the almost joke, "jazz" reference, high school band, first time you ever realized you could make an instrument scream feeling - let's get those 20 people in a room and make some noise. Skeletons Big Band.

It ended up as more of a chamber orchestra: string section, woodwinds, brass, percussion. We wrote just enough on the page to constitute a song and the rest was up to the players... so we got great players - members of Extra Life, Little Women, Tune Yards, NOMO, PC Worship, The Dreebs, Starring, and more.

What formed, eventually called "The Bus" revolved around a long poem I wrote on a Greyhound bus from Columbus, OH to Chicago, IL. I had spent nearly three years riding on the Greyhound between Chicago and Elyria, OH while studying at Oberlin College in Ohio - and that trip from Columbus opened up some intense thoughts and memories. Sometimes, on the bus, there would be someone who would just talk loud. I suppose they were hoping someone would listen. Sometimes, I would write down what they said.

"The Bus", much like our album "Lucas", is a "ghost narrative". It tells a story, without telling too much. It's up to you to fill in the gaps.

After much work, hand-wringing, and delays - we're happy to give you "The Bus".

-Matt / Skeletons

credits

released 18 September 2012

Recorded at Roulette, New York City by Stephen Cooper and Brooke Gillespie. Mixed by Matthew Mehlan at the "Famous Original" Soilent Burn Recording Facilities, Orient Ave, Brooklyn, NY.